Joy is often defined as "feelings of great happiness or pleasure". I guess that's true to an extent but I think that Joy is something more that just heightened feelings of pleasure. I think that someone can be Joyful even if they aren't happy at all and having the worst time of their life. Joy has to be something that goes to the very inner core of a person's being.
Happiness is a more commonly looked into subject than Joy i've found. I think that that might be because Joy is such a complicated concept although it seems so simple.
"True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." - Helen Keller
This definition of happiness brings about another problem though, what is "true" Joy and "true" happiness. at a first glance I wanted to say that "true" joy is joy, plain and simple. and the concept of "true" happiness is Joy. not so simple. I think that Joy and happiness may be an example of those types of words that we have taken and through using them too commonly have altered their meanings. A common example is Love. although it is hard to define as well, Love has been taken and used for all sorts of purposes:
-A man Loves his Wife.
-A man Loves his parents.
-A man Loves playing basketball.
-A man Loves a Cheeseburger.
Love is the word that we use all the time, It's easy to just throw into a sentence. We say "Love" but we don't actually mean it:
-A man intimately LOVES hie Wife
-A man Loves (honours, respects, cares for) his parents
-A man enjoys (takes delight in) playing basketball
-A man enjoys the and takes pleasure in enjoying the grilled American delicacy that is the Cheeseburger. :)
There are four areas that a person can be in concerning happiness and Joy:
1. Joy but no happiness
2. Happiness but no Joy
3. Joy and happiness together
4. neither Joy or happiness are present.
I'm reluctant to say that happiness is the outward expression of Joy, but in a sense, it works. I believe that happiness can be faked, Joy can't be faked.
Many people will say that Joy can only come from God, but I'm not entirely sure that that's true. I do believe that Joy can be given directly from the Lord and we can become joyful because of the spiritual connection we feel as we worship God. but I also think that this can be achieved in other ways. for example, I love to serve others and make others smile. Often I will put on a happy face when I am in public even when I'm not in the slightest feeling happy or even Joyful for that matter. In this case I would say that I am "happy but noy Joyful". because I am forcing myself to be happy although there is a lack of Joy inside of me to back it up. Putting on this happy face does actually bring me Joy in a lot of cases. people see how I am acting and I've often heard people say that my "joy" is a blessing to them. (this then does bring me actual Joy). although people are a huge part of my theology in this example it is less relevant in this example. I think that my Joy was received from the gratification that I was being a blessing to others. It could be argued though that because people are such a huge part of my theology God is useing them to bless me through the passions that he has given me.
This post isn't finished, I'll continue once I've had some more time to reflect.
